AN UNRELIABLE READ

I believed the hype about A Reliable Wife, and it does have a decent plot . . . when you can find it. I am--once again--reminded of how little I know or can anticipate regarding what publishers want. This author, published twice by a "reliable" publisher, ignores most of the tenets of good writing: the narrative drags-in all sorts of backstory, tells rather than shows, repeats insignificant bits of information, and even contradicts itself. The rambling and nonspecific descriptions overwhelm the story-line. The narrator tells the reader what the characters believe rather than illustrating. I love good, detailed description, but not of the same scenes over and over again and not when it buries the plot so deeply that I don't care what happens next.


The upshot is . . . clearly, I do not know what publishers and agents think of as sound narrative structure, good description, exciting plot, or character development.